themselves. In another moment something showed forth, and he knew
that Matilda was there.

Bob felt three cheers rise within him as she stepped down; but it being
Sunday he did not utter them. In dress, Miss Johnson passed his
expectations--a green and white gown, with long, tight sleeves, a green
silk handkerchief round her neck and crossed in front, a green parasol,
and green gloves. It was strange enough to see this verdant caterpillar
turn out of a road-waggon, and gracefully shake herself free from the
bits of straw and fluff which would usually gather on the raiment of the
grandest travellers by that vehicle.

'But, my dear Matilda,' said Bob, when he had kissed her three times with
much publicity--the practical step he had determined on seeming to demand
that these things should no longer be done in a corner--'my dear Matilda,
why didn't you come by the coach, having the money for't and all?'

'That's my scrimping!' said Matilda in a delightful gush. 'I know you
won't be offended when you know I did it to save against a rainy day!'

Bob, of course, was not offended, though the glory of meeting her had
been less; and even if vexation were possible, it would have been out of
place to say so. Still, he would have experienced no little surprise had
he learnt the real reason of his Matilda's change of plan. That angel
had, in short, so wildly spent Bob's and her own money in the adornment
of her person before setting out, that she found herself without a
sufficient margin for her fare by coach, and had scrimped from sheer
necessity.

'Well, I have got the trap out at the Greyhound,' said Bob. 'I don't
know whether it will hold your luggage and us too; but it looked more
respectable than the waggon on a Sunday, and if there's not room for the
boxes I can walk alongside.'

'I think there will be room,' said Miss Johnson mildly. And it was soon
very evident that she spoke the truth; for when her property was
deposited on the pavement, it consisted of a trunk about eighteen inches
long, and nothing more.

'O--that's all!' said Captain Loveday, surprised.

'That's all,' said the young woman assuringly. 'I didn't want to give
trouble, you know, and what I have besides I have left at my aunt's.'

'Yes, of course,' he answered readily. 'And as it's no bigger, I can
carry it in my hand to the inn, and so it will be no trouble at all.'

He caught up the little box, and they went side by side to the Greyhound